German Patent Application DE 39 32 441 discloses a recloseable folding box which comprises a front side wall and a rear side wall as well as two side walls which connect the front side wall and the rear side wall, a base part and a top closure flap. The closure flap is connected, via a fastening tab, to an insertion tongue which, for its part, is arranged in the rear side wall or front side wall via a weakening line and can be torn out of said side wall. This folding box, however, does not provide any possible means for hanging it on a hook in any way. Once said folding box has been filled with the goods which are to be sold, it has to be displayed to the customer in a manner which shows it to best effect and which allows it to be handled easily. A very clearly laid-out display may be provided in sales racks by means of the generally known self-service hooks, which make it possible for a plurality of folding boxes to be received one behind the other. In order that the folding box described can be hung on such a hook, a correspondingly shaped blank with a hanging device has to be fitted on the folding box in addition. This usually takes place by this part with the corresponding hanging device being adhesively bonded on the folding box at a suitable location in an additional operation. However, the production process of the folding box is thus made more complicated, inter alia, as a result of the production of the further blank or the adhesive bonding of the latter on the finished box, and the greater number of operating steps increases the amount of time required for the production process; furthermore, this means a very much higher outlay in terms of apparatus.
German Patent Application DE 43 22 555 likewise discloses a recloseable, cuboidal folding box. This folding box comprises a rear side wall, which is formed by an outer side-wall part and an inner side-wall part, a front side wall, two side walls which connect the front side wall and the rear side wall, a base closure and a top closure. The outer side-wall part has, in its top region, a hanging tab with a correspondingly shaped hanging device, for example round holes or slots. The hanging tab can be used to position the folding box on a hook. However, since the hanging tab is merely of single-layer design and consists of the same material as the rest of the folding box, problems arise during practical usage of the folding box. If, taking into consideration environmental reasons and reasons of cost, the folding box is produced from thin material, the hanging tab has insufficient stability. Even if the folding box is subjected to a slight, unintentional pulling action, the hanging tab tears off, with the result that the hanging tab loses its function and it is no longer possible for the box to be hung up as desired. Furthermore, the appearance of the box is adversely effected as a result and it is no longer possible for the box to be displayed to the customer. Conversely, producing the folding box from thicker, more stable material means that, although the hanging tab can be subjected to tensile loading to a very much greater extent, a large amount of material is wasted unnecessarily at the same time because the rest of the walls of the folding box are over-dimensioned.
American U.S. Pat. No. 4,344,533 describes a box which has a hanging means which is made up of two individual hanging tabs. However, this box has several disadvantages as far as its production and use are concerned. The blank of the box disclosed in the American patent has a vertical construction, i.e. the two hanging tabs and the end tab, which together form the hanging means of the box, are arranged in a straight line with the four side walls, the individual parts being connected to one another by a folding line in each case. This type of folding blank means that, once the body of the box has been assembled, the box can only be filled from the side and not, as is generally customary and desired, from above. This makes it necessary to use cartoning and filling machines which are specifically designed for this blank and are otherwise rather unconventional. Furthermore, when the box has been completed, there is a section, in the region of the hanging means, which has a threefold material thickness, as a result of three walls located one above the other, and is thus over-dimensioned. This makes the box more expensive to produce, as a result of increased material consumption, and at the same time results in the weight of the box increasing, with the generally known disadvantages. It is only possible to open the box by first of all a strip of material over the actual opening being removed in an irreversible manner and thus ending up as waste, which, from current environmental standpoints, is undesirable. The box is then torn open at a perforation line. The box can only be reclosed by the hanging means, following corresponding folding, simultaneously serving as a closure cover and being pushed into the opening of the box. This rules out the possibility, once the box has been opened for the first time and closed again, of the box being hung up again by its actual hanging means. The hanging means thus loses its original, actual function. Furthermore, it is not possible to rule out the situation, during closure of the box, where the closure cover, in particular when the box is no longer completely full, slips, in an uncontrolled manner, too far into the interior of the box, with the result that it is no longer possible to grip said closure cover and the box can then only be opened with very great difficulty. Finally, the simultaneous use of the hanging means as a closure cover for the box means that when the box is still sealed, in particular when the box is of a large overall depth, a large, bulky hanging means is produced. This results, for example, in the box taking up a very large amount of surface area when it is hung up in a rack, with the result that the actual capacity of the rack can only be utilized insufficiently by the boxes disclosed.
DE 195 41 904 discloses a similar folding box. The folding box comprises a front side wall, a rear side wall, a right-hand side wall, which connects the front side wall and the rear side wall, and a left-hand side wall. The box has a base closure, which is formed by four base closure flaps, and a top closure, which is formed by four closure flaps, two closure flaps of the top closure and two base closure flaps being adhesively bonded to one another. Furthermore, integrated in the front side wall or in the rear side wall is a tear-open tab which is retained in the front side wall or the rear side wall by means of a weakening or predetermined tearing line and is connected to a closure flap of the top closure or to a base closure flap of the base closure via a folding line. At least one inner rear wall is provided in the folding box, to be precise if the tear-open tab is located in the rear side wall. In the case where the tear-open tab is located in the front side wall, then an intermediate wall and, adjoining the intermediate wall, an inner front wall are articulated. Articulated on the rear side wall, in the region of the latter which is free of the tear-open tab, is a first hanging tab, which is located in the plane formed by the rear side wall and has a hanging device, such as slots or round holes. At the same time, a second hanging tab with a hanging device, such as slots or round holes, is punched out of the same region of the inner rear wall as in the case of the rear side wall, starting from the folding line between the inner rear wall and closure flap, it being the case that the closure flap which is articulated on the inner rear wall is of a greater width at the folding line than the second hanging tab.
DE 195 35 008 has disclosed a recloseable, cuboidal folding box having a front side wall, a rear side wall, a left-hand side wall, which connects the front side wall and the rear side wall, and a right-hand side wall. The box has a recloseable base, preferably comprising three base closure flaps articulated on the side walls, and three further closure flaps, which are articulated on the front side wall, on the left-hand side wall, which connects the front side wall and the rear side wall, and on the right-hand side wall and which are located opposite the base closure flaps, and having a fourth closure flap, which is articulated on the rear side wall and which, together with the three further closure flaps, forms the top closure of the folding box, this making it possible to have a secure and stable means of hanging the folding box on the known self-service hooks of sales racks within shops or pharmacies. The fourth closure flap is made up, according to the invention, of a plurality of sections, to be precise of p1 a first hanging tab with a hanging device, which is articulated on the rear side wall of the folding box via a folding line, there being articulated on the first hanging tab, via a folding line,
a second hanging tab with a hanging device, there being articulated on the second hanging tab, via a folding line, PA1 an end tab, PA1 it being the case that the first hanging tab, the second hanging tab and the end tab are arranged one behind the other in a straight line, it being the case that the three further closure flaps and the fourth closure flap are each articulated on the same side of the four side walls, and it being the case that, when the folding box has been completed, the end tab is adhesively bonded to the closure flap articulated on the front side wall. PA1 a) of a tab which is articulated on the front side wall via a folding line, PA1 b) of a first hanging tab with a hanging device, which is articulated on the tab via a folding line, PA1 c) of a second hanging tab with a hanging device, which is articulated on the first hanging tab via a folding line, PA1 d) of an end tab, which is articulated on the second hanging tab via a folding line, it being the case that PA1 e) the sum of the width of the tab and of the end tab is no greater than the width of the top closure flap.
This folding box has a double-layer hanging means, but does not have a tamperproof seal which is recloseable.
The disadvantage with all the boxes known from the prior art is that, in so far as they have the tamperproof seal disclosed by DE 43 22 555, the hanging means is always provided on that side of the folding box which is located opposite the tamperproof seal, i.e. in the base region of the folding box when said folding boxes are ones with a single-part blank. For the reasons specified above, the task of adhesively bonding a hanging means on the box subsequently is always to be avoided.
It is annoying for the customer if the hanging means of the folding box and the closure are arranged on opposite sides of the folding box. Experience has shown that the customer takes the folding box in his/her hand and opens it at the top, that is to say in the vicinity of the hanging means, by irreversibly tearing open, and destroying, the folding box. Subsequent closure of said folding box is no longer possible. The customer who has had a little more experience of such boxes opens the folding box, as envisaged, at the tamperproof seal, removes the desired product, for example a plaster, and then closes the box again. If the latter is then hung on a hook by the hanging means, the closed closure is located at the bottom. It is thus not possible to rule out the situation where the folding box comes open unintentionally and the products located therein drop out. The task of the invention is to solve the problems described.
The object of the invention is to provide a recloseable, cuboidal folding box which has a tamperproof seal and a hanging means which are both provided in the top region of the folding box, of which the hanging means has a high stability, with as little material being used as possible, which can be produced cost-effectively, with as little material being used as possible, which can be erected, filled and closed easily and quickly with the aid of machines, and of which the folding blank along with the integrated hanging means is in a single piece.